Catching up…

May 15, 2009

Well, a month between posts is not what I had in mind for this blog, but it’s been a pretty busy month. I’ve done a few commercial jobs, shot a wedding with a friend and moved into a new house. I’d say it has been busy!

Settling in to the new place has been exciting. We’ve moved to Skippack, PA, a nice little artsy town with many small shops and restaurants. Skippack also has the propensity to draw large crowds to stroll its streets during the many festivals it hosts throughout the year. Surprisingly, there’s only one photographer in town with a shop on the main walk. Perhaps the town could stand another… 🙂

The more weddings I shoot the more I like them. Sure, it’s really hard work, but there’s something about the atmosphere – nervous energy and excitement. I have another one or two this month (waiting for confirmation on the second) and I’m looking forward to them. I’m very much a people person and if you get a fun group for the wedding, the day is a real joy.

[EDIT: Wow, did I post the wrong picture! Not sure what happened, but the image I posted did NOT look like I expected – completely my fault! I’m replacing with two of my favorites from that day.]

I’ve done a significant amount of printing over the last month both in house and outsourced. I’m still extremely impressed with the color and quality my Epson 3800 provides. It’s just a dream printer for the type of printing I’m doing. The problem came in when I needed to print multiple size prints. I use QImage to print. This software arranges multiple size images on paper in a way that optimally uses the print media. The prints look great, but my paper cutter destroyed the prints. Ughhhh. After a little research I found that the best paper cutters are made by Rotatrim and they’re not cheap! 🙂 Now what?

With a bad paper cutter and a short delivery time on the prints, I went to a new online friend – White House Custom Color. WHCC prints everything from proofs to books to posters all at reasonable prices and with fantastic results. After a quick couple of test prints (they deliver second day mail!) I was able to reprint my entire order, package in a beautiful box and receive in just two days. I was really impressed and, best of all, so was my client. From now on, WHCC gets my printing business. I still love my 3800, but for multiple size orders this is going to save a lot of time and money.

On a technical note, I recently converted my Mac Book Pro to dual boot with Windows 7. “Dual booting” allows me to choose which operating system my Mac Book uses upon start up – Mac OS X or Windows 7. For those of you that aren’t familiar, Windows 7 is the next version of the Microsoft Windows operating system after Vista. Microsoft has provided a pre-release copy on their website for free download. You’re able to use this “release candidate” until July 2010. Be warned!!! After the expiration of the release candidate you need to reinstall Windows 7. There is no upgrade from this to the released version.

Suffice it to say, I’m LOVING the dual boot option. While I’ve totally mostly converted to OS X, there are still some tasks with which I need Windows. While my experience with VMWare Fusion for running Windows virtually has been nothing but positive, sometimes you need all the horsepower a real machine provides. I’m really exited that my Mac hardware supports Windows 7 extremely well. If you find yourself a Mac user with a need to run Windows from time-to-time I really like the Boot Camp option for a true Windows environment.

Lastly, I’m working on better defining my communication. Currently, I have one Facebook and Twitter profile. I’m going to divide this into a person profile and a photography profile. I’ll provide more information via Twitter and my Facebook fan page as soon as the changes are complete…